I'm looking for information about the Lancaster LL859 which crashed on the border ot Tilburg/Dongen on the 21st of July 1944. All crewmembers were killed during the crash. Does anybody have information about the crew or on the mission on Meerbeck-Homburg (routemap, OPS, intell-reports etc.) Crewmembers: Flt Lt Alan Leslie Smith Pilot F Sgt John Joseph Chigwidden Navigator F Sgt Francis Donald Brandon Wireless Operator FO Frank Charles Montgomery Bomber/AG Sgt Edward Albert O’Connor Mid Upper Gunner Sgt Jack Spencer Rear Gunner Sgt Reginald Ivon Lewis Flight Engineer thanks and kind regards, Mark
Accident Avro Lancaster Mk I LL859, 21 Jul 1944 Shot down by Oberleutnant Dietrich Schmidt, Staffelkapitän of 8./NJG 1 Meerbeck was home of the Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuel plant "Rheinpreußen"
You can find a copy of the Bomber Command summary of activities for 20/21 July 1944, including routemap and intel summary on pages 65-70 of this site: http://lancasterbombersinfo.ipage.com/Data/NRR/1944/July-44/mobile/index.html The site navigation controls are a little sticky (at lest in my browser) but if you click on the top or bottom corners of the page you should be able to scroll to the right place. You can zoom in etc by right clicking your mouse. It does not identify specific aircraft, only losses in a "general" nature. Cheers
Have several 622 Sqdn books where LL859 is mentioned. Will see if I can find something. Cheers,Adrian
It is not clear whether this question has been answered but I found the crash site. An airplane (with John Joseph Chigwidden Navigator on board) crashed in Tilburg (Netherlands) and there is a description page in Dutch. Chigwidden, John Joseph - Wiki Midden-Brabant If you have translated this page you will find that they to are looking for some extra information.
A summary of the page above and the persons that are lacking information on this website: Vliegtuigcrash Tilburg, Voldijk - Wiki Midden-Brabant.